SKYDIVING

I finally did it! I went skydiving at the Fox Glacier which is about a 45 minute drive from Franz Josef. It's a town about the same size, same weather, but with diffierent glacier. We've had a couple days of gorgious weather and they managed to sqeeze me in since I was cancelled on so many times (really it was only 2). They had a driver pick me up in Franz with two other guys to take us to Fox. As soon as we got there we signed a waiver then got geared up. They went through a very fast run down of what we need to do when we're in the plane and sky and then we got strapped to our tandem master, did a practice "jump" (just how to hang out of the plane properly), got into the plane, and took off. They only do 2 jumps at a time so it was me and a guy from Ireland who went first. I was crammed in closest to the door so I was also the first to jump - though, I didn't actually have to jump, I just had to hang out of the plane and fall with my guy.

OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH IT WAS SO COOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!

We were told that as we fall we had to be bananas and arch our backs. We did some summer saults while we were free falling! It was so strage to watch the world spinning around you. It goes so fast you don't have time to even make sense of it. I couldn't have gotten sick if I wanted to because I couldn't register it. I was told the free-fall is 45 sec long. The longest 45 seconds of my life so far. I guess with something like that you're forced to really live in the moment and that's why it seems to take forever. It was really hard to breathe too! I could feel my nostrils flared wide from the wind and if I smiled it created like a wind tunnel effect and I'd choke a bit! Ha ha ha ha! I got a dvd of the whole thing and in it I have a tight lipped smile the whole way down, I look so funny! Adding to that, I also drooled at some point so I have spit on my face for the entire thing until I get to the ground and notice (so embarrassing)! HA HA HA HA haha!

The best part though was when he pulled the parachute. When I tried to imagine myself skydiving I only ever thought about the fall not the parachute part. It was so incredibly serene. There was maybe a bit of a breeze. I could see EVERYTHING - the Tasman Sea, the mountains, Fox glacier, farm land, rainforest, rivers... it was incredible! It was so calm and gentle I could have been sitting on a park bench. The straps hurt me a bit though, I have bruises in my arm pits to show for it. But that's minor.

I've been trying to get the DVD onto the computer so I could upload it to a site for everyone to see but this computer (and the one beside me) sucks. I have some of my own pictures which you can see on my flickr site. I can't even get the professional pictures onto the computer so those will just have to wait for now.

In other news:

Franz Josef is still just as small and suffocating as I've ever found it, if not more. I have run into that guy since new years. That was awkward but it's ok. We can coexist in the bar and I've even chatted briefly with him as is nothing ever happened. Work has really been bothering me lately. I've decided to try and re-negotiate my contract so I send an email to my boss detailing the things I'm having issues with and possible solutions. I also said in the email that if they aren't willing to work with me on it or we can't come to an agreement then they can consider the email my official resignation. It's quite possible that in two weeks I may be moving on....... wouldn't that be lovely?